Tuesday, July 23, 2013

I sent just off some info re- the next OccuLibrary incarnations for the Dallas-Fort Worth-wide MAP 2013 exhibition, so I'll share them with you here.

Those incarnations will include:

Secret Sociality, an installation of an intimate, partially-“hidden” library of books and other materials relevant to art and social issues. This will be in Eastfield College's main gallery along with works by two other, internationally-known artists.

Art as Social Wormhole, a reading group/“artificial M.F.A.” course in classic and recent texts on aesthetic issues relating to art's potential to speak to or influence political realities. The group’s home base will be The Reading Room, with some meetings at venues exhibiting art works relevant to the readings.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

If you like the OccuLibrary's mission, we invite you to contact us, or to re-create any of the incarnations we've come up with, or to invent your own.
You are welcome to use the materials we've developed:

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The unit, titled Werkberg, was created by sculptors Cassandra Emswiler, Kristen Cochran, and Greg Metz, and is part of the Co- Re-Creating Spaces exhibition at CentralTrak, 800 Exposition Ave., Dallas, that opened on Nov. 17, 2012, the first anniversary of the nationwide Occupy demonstrations that authorities presumably hoped to avert by evicting all the camps within the preceding 24 hrs.

The Werkberg houses a selection of enjoyable yet empowering books and videos donated by various collaborators, as well as projected views of artists' work spaces (the unit was partially inspired by Gregory Sholette's Dark Matter).

The show includes a related work, 451 degrees, by Karen Weiner with Celia & Frank Eberle, which functions as a card catalogue for the library (I'll try to get a pic of that and post it here soon).

The exhibition "surveys how artists are questioning and subverting existing systems, contexts, or spaces – the law, the economy, history, the news, language, etc. – and contributing to their re-imagining and re-creation, recognizing that 'reality' itself can be both art medium and art object, and speculates how developments in the virtual and the actual might affect one another."

Powerlessness is what happens when you sit behind your desk and do nothing. Powerlessness is signing an online petition, or commenting on an article, or forwarding an e-mail. . . . I can honestly say that the moments in my professional life when I feel the least powerless, occur when I’m doing OWS library work. – Zachary, OWS-NY librarian

The OccuLibrary is a project originated by cultural workers and supporters in Dallas, Texas; here's a brief overview. Help us co- re-create reality-only-better!

To contact us, please provide your email or other info in a comment on a post, putting "Do not publish" at the top.